A few months into our new integrative health practice, we have noticed an interesting pattern among clients who are very high performers in corporate and academic life, and/or in competitive sports—persons who have studied and practice optimizing their health for years – on disciplined diets, regular exercise routines, often self-reflective, valuing yoga and meditation…
Yet, they have a deeper sense that they are somehow missing something. They are not doing as well as they know they should. All have a variety of nuisance symptoms: slowly developing arthritis, back and neck pain, anxiety, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, hormonal symptoms. Not hypertension, diabetes, cancer, or autoimmune disease, so considered less important.
But, net, net, they realize they cannot count on aging gracefully, and they don’t feel quite right in their skin anymore.
What is going on here? The answer lies in health and well-being as a whole system. We are bio-emotional beings: immeasurably complex biological systems with a complicated communications network governed by our — you got it — immensely complex brains. However, physicians and scientists are trained to operate by process of elimination, homing on single issues at a time. Our modern medical system is not yet suited to deal with bio-emotional complexity.
I don’t believe that nuisance symptoms are an inevitable part of aging. Our practice employs them as cues and signals: illuminating a personal health map, and allowing us to develop a proper legend based on multiple medical disciplines.
Two recent messages from clients:
- “I had thought of the subtle body changes over the years prior to Anatara as typical ‘aging’. Within 7 days of my initial Anatara visit, it was apparent I had more core strength and energy. I started sleeping through the night, for up to eight hours. Daily walks up hills were easier, and three miles was done before I realized it.
A week later, my arrhythmia had almost completely subsided, and morning pounding in my heart stopped. Apparently my arrhythmia was a symptom. Unexpected changes continued:
My skin was not as dry, and seemed softer,
Callouses on my feet eased.
My nose for the first time had moisture.A few weeks later the blacklines around my ankle from the gold chain disappeared. Not having heart issues is overjoying!”
- “I’m one of those late-sixties people who others point to and say, ‘I wish I could be in that kind of shape.’ Yet I found that 5 days into Convergence Medicine, symptoms I had come to accept as normal began to shift. I could keep my neck and back in 1 hr/week of stretching instead of 3. In 3 weeks, my strength and stamina increased; in 8 weeks overseas trips didn’t knock me out; my eyes were not bothered by glare; I just felt more right. At 12 weeks, lifelong patterns started to shift. I’m much less tired in the evenings, I don’t need ‘retreat’ days, and I’m actually less introverted: I have energy to socialize in the evenings (my husband is happy!) Friends who haven’t seen me for awhile are wondering how I’m turning back the clock.”
We haven’t quite figured out how to talk about this yet, but we’re certainly tracking it. I’m more and more convinced that taking individual cues seriously is the key to a healthy population. We’ll keep tracking.